African Sands Guesthouse Bloemfontein LOAD SHEDDING FREE

My Husband, children and I needed an overnight stay on our return from Cape Town. The host was very accomodating and the room was clean,neat and well equiped! Thank you to African Sands for your wonderful service and the excellent accomodation! Mr and Mrs Petersen (KNZ)

We arrived at the African Sands guesthouse in Bloemfontein on Saturday 8 October at about 7.30pm. We were met by the hostess who told us the cost would be R650 per person (on their website, the executive bridal suite is only R549), however the hostess was aware that we were desperate for accommodation and so provided us with two interleading back rooms. My room was small with two single beds. One bed was made. When I asked the hostess if she would mind making up the other bed as I would have difficulty getting out of the made bed as I have a disabled leg, she said “That bed is made so you will have to use it. I have other things to do now” The bed base had no cover and when I pulled back the sheet, the sheets were mouldy, the blanket was smelly and the single pillow on the bed was very flat and it too, had a strange smell. My bedroom had no bedside tables or lamps and the comforter on the bed was old, faded and smelly. My bathroom had a toilet, a basin and a shower. The shower was not clean. There was a handtowel and a bathtowel. Both were cheap quality and also had a strange smell. My small piece of soap looked like it had been used before. There was a cup in the bathroom that was dirty. My colleague’s room had a double bed which squeaked terribly if you even sat on it. Her towel smelled of smoke and she had no soap in her bathroom at all. When we arrived the hostess mentioned that she had no credit card facilities and they did not take cheques, so people would have to carry large amounts of cash around to pay the account. We were asked for the money as we arrived. It gets worse. We were not told about any tea/coffee making facilities for morning tea. The website specifically states that there is a buffet breakfast. Signs all over the guesthouse state that breakfast is from 7 – 10 am. When we mentioned that we wanted breakfast at 7.30 as we had a long road journey ahead, we were told we had to wait until 8 as breakfast on a Sunday was only at 8 am (This was not signposted anywhere). Breakfast consisted of a bowl of yogurt and tinned fruit, tea or coffee (which you have to make yourself), toast with jam and a disgustingly cheap yellow margarine and a plate with a hunk of microwaved bacon, an oily Vienna sausage and a small piece of tomato very obviously microwaved and over done as it had just about disintegrated. (We did request that we did not want eggs but there was no attempt to try and give us something else eg. Mushroom or beans). The hostess was very inflexible and her whole demeanour was one of “I don’t really want to do this but I have to as you’ve paid for it”. Service was at an absolute minimum and quality was bad. As we were desperate for accommodation and this was probably the last bed in Bloemfontein (not surprisingly), I think perhaps that the hostess thought she was doing us a favour and she had obviously thought that it was a perfect opportunity to rip someone off, but even if the room was small and sparsely furnished (acceptable under the circumstances), if you are charging people this much for accommodation, you should at least offer a level of comfort and cleanliness. Everybody had the same awful breakfast. I have seen some of the other rooms on the website and they look impressive, however it was different what we got and the food was definitely not of an acceptable standard, neither was the attitude of the hostess who never made any attempt to make us feel welcome.

i have not stayed at the place and will never go stay there. just making the booking was an absolute nightmare. On Sat, 10 Oct 11, I made a reservation for the weekend of 7 - 9 October 2011. I was told to pay that day and I agreed, but being a short business day i didn't make it to the bank on time. So I made my deposit on Monday morning and when I called her to confrim this I was told that I would receive confirmation on Tues at 10h00 because she had other people who had booked six rooms and were going to pay by that time. I asked her if my paying meant nothing to which she responded that I was supposed to have paid on Sat anyway and she was too busy to have an argument with me and she would refund the money when these people paid. she never called. i called her back later that evening and she was still waiting. I asked for my refund then cos she could not confirm my booking and she told me that she was busy and she did not have time to deal with this cos I was supposed to have paid in full for the booking on Sat and I didn't so she could only accommodate me for the one day cos I made part payment. Needless to say, I cant go to the festival anymore cos my 85 year od gran has fallen sick. I called her to expalin and ask for a refund, she does not want to talk to me about it, and she is busy she has guest that are coming and she will refund me when she fills the room, and obviousy I was supposed to pay... My grandmother is sick for crying out loud. All i want is my money. personally, she is giving BLOEM establishments a bad reputation as a tourist attraction. i was all excited about this festival and do not see myself supporting the smaller establishments if I do ever come over there. i will gladly book myself into the major hotel groups.

Our stay was not very comfortable. The owner/manager not very friendly or helpfull. We felt as if we were in the way.